


I Love You A Latte

by Star55



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F, Genderswap, Girl Direction, girl!Harry, girl!Liam - Freeform, girl!Louis, girl!Niall, girl!Zayn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-01
Updated: 2014-03-01
Packaged: 2018-01-14 04:16:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1252417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star55/pseuds/Star55
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Your girl is here.”</p>
<p>Zayn looks up as she slips the apron on over her head to see Louis nodding her head towards a table that Zayn has mentally dubbed <i>her</i> table. </p>
<p>“Not my girl, Lou,” Zayn mutters. She ties the apron strings behind her. She’s in for a long shift, she can feel it already.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Love You A Latte

“Your girl is here.”

Zayn looks up as she slips the apron on over her head to see Louis nodding her head towards a table that Zayn has mentally dubbed _her_ table. A blonde haired girl had started coming in to the little coffee shop they work at for the last few weeks. She always has a pile of books with her, orders at least three coffees during her stay and pretty much keeps to herself as she does her school work. Zayn has seen her around the university campus a few times but only very briefly and only in passing and never long enough to actually say anything other than a simple ‘hi’ as they pass each other. The Girl is stunning and she has the brightest smile Zayn has ever seen. She looks happy _all_ of the time and it’s cute. Zayn likes that she’s able to be happy even though she has mountains of books that she devours every single week and notebooks filled with whatever she’s scribbling in them.

Zayn may also be a little infatuated with her. She made the stupid mistake of telling Louis, her co-worker, that she thought The Girl was cute and Louis has made it her mission ever since to get Zayn to talk to her. All Zayn has managed so far is to take her order and bring her cups of coffee and occasionally a biscuit or a muffin.

“Not my girl, Lou,” Zayn mutters. She ties the apron strings behind her. She’s in for a long shift, she can feel it already.

“Well, she _would_ be your girl if you went over there and asked her out,” Louis says as she seamlessly moves around their complicated coffee machine. Louis had been the one to teach Zayn the ropes when she started and it’s quite fascinating watching Louis when she is in the zone. It’s all quick movements and perfect coffee at the end of it; even if Louis does happen to bitch to Zayn about it after, bemoaning _how can anyone drink the stuff_? But Louis is good at her job and even though she bitches to Zayn on the side about smelling like coffee after a shift, she sticks it out so Zayn commends her for that much.

Louis huffs in Zayn’s direction and the door to the shop opens with the tinkling of the bell above it. Zayn doesn’t even have to look at it to know that it’s Harry walking through the door – not when Louis’ face lights up like a Christmas tree.

“Hey,” Harry greets as she walks up to the counter, carrying a large cupcake box in her hands. “Just made these fresh.”

“You are an angel,” Louis says as she accepts the box from Harry. Harry’s been making their cupcakes fresh daily for a good while now. They sell really well with both the customers and the staff alike. It was Louis who had begged their assistant manager, Liam, to let her girlfriend make cupcakes for sale and after much needling and actually trying some of the cupcakes herself, Liam had eventually agreed. It made for a happy Harry and by default a happy Louis, so it worked well.

Zayn takes the box from Louis so she can kiss Harry over the counter. It’s not like they live together or anything and haven’t seen each other just a couple of hours ago. They really are the most sickeningly sweet and in love couple Zayn has ever had the pleasure of seeing in her short life. 

Zayn puts the cupcakes in the display window and leaves one to the side. She bites her lip and flicks her gaze over to The Girl who is chewing on the end of her pen, her brow furrowed in concentration as she reads from the text book in front of her.

“Still haven’t asked her out yet, Zayn?” Harry asks, her voice penetrating Zayn’s thoughts.

“Shut up,” Zayn mumbles, shoving the cupcake back onto its spot on the rack. 

She can practically hear Louis rolling her eyes at the comment but Zayn can’t bring herself to care. Louis and Harry mutter between themselves and then kiss once more, just as obnoxious as always before Harry leaves. Zayn breathes a sigh of relief. She loves Harry, she does, but she doesn’t need Harry and Louis shoving their perfect relationship in her face. 

Suddenly, The Girl is at the counter and Zayn just blinks at her. Shit, she’s supposed to be working. 

“Uh, what can I get you?” Zayn asks and The Girl smiles brightly, showing off her perfectly straight teeth. Zayn wants to run over them with her tongue.

“A hazelnut latte and one of those cute cupcakes, thanks,” The Girl replies. Zayn nods and charges her for the order before making the coffee. It’s a simple one to make, thankfully, and one that Zayn’s made thousands of times before. She could do it in her sleep it’s that simple. Louis moves to serve the next customer and her hip bumps softly against Zayn’s own as she opens the cupcake window to get one out. Zayn purposefully doesn’t look at Louis because she knows that Louis will have _that look_ on her smug face. Zayn sometimes wants to punch that look off Louis’ face but she knows that Louis is right. Damn her.

Zayn finishes The Girl’s order up and passes it to her, only to have Louis’ voice break between them.

“Hey, what’s your name?” she asks and The Girl looks over at Louis.

“Niall,” she replies in her gorgeous Irish accent that Zayn may or may not have masturbated thinking about one or a few dozen times. Sue her, she’s a very sexually aware young woman and that voice is to die for.

Louis flashes her a winning smile and a cheeky wink before turning back to the slightly balding guy who’s waiting for his coffee order. “There you go,” she says to him, sliding the take away cup across the counter. The guy takes his coffee and leaves and Zayn rounds on Louis the moment he’s gone.

“What was that?” she asks.

“Nothing,” Louis replies. “I just asked for her name.”

“Well… I…”

Louis huffs. “I’m just helping fate along a little,” she says. “Your slow arse isn’t going to ask her out any time soon, the least we can do is know her name since she’s been coming in here every day for the last three weeks.”

Zayn glances over at Niall who is sipping at the coffee she has in one hand and picking apart the cupcake with another as she reads. She’s getting crumbs everywhere that Zayn will have to clean up later when she’s gone but she can’t bring herself to care when Niall lifts the chunk of cupcake that’s pinched between her fingers to her mouth and _sucks_ on them. Zayn’s pretty sure she just got wet from that action alone.

“Fuck,” Louis says. “You couldn’t be more obvious if you were kneeling between her legs and eating her out.”

“Louis!” Zayn exclaims. “God, you’re so crass.”

“And yet I’m the one getting laid regularly,” Louis replies with a pointedly raised perfectly shaped eyebrow in Zayn’s direction. She really hates Louis.

The mid-morning rush happens a short while later and Zayn doesn’t even have a moment to look in Niall’s direction at all. When she looks up after the stream of customers and coffee orders have finally calmed down, Niall is nowhere to be found.

“She left about ten minutes ago,” Louis says, slinging her arm around Zayn’s shoulders. She pulls Zayn close and kisses the top of her head. “Be brave, ask her out next time. Or at least put your damn number on her cup.”

Zayn shakes her head. “I can’t,” she says. “That’s stupid and clichéd and not who I am. It wouldn’t be a very good story to tell our kids of how their mums started dating, would it?”

And shit. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud at all.

Louis’ face cracks into a wide grin. “ _Zayn_!” she exclaims excitedly. “You’re planning on having her babies already?”

Zayn groans. Whoever said that Louis was her best friend was positively wrong. Louis was the devil incarnate. There was no other explanation.

“I… Oh, shut it,” Zayn mutters as Louis starts rambling on about baby names and cute little matching outfits for when Zayn and Harry are inevitably pregnant at the same time. Because everyone knows how much Harry wants to be pregnant and Zayn is pretty sure, if Louis could physically knock her up, she probably would have done so a hundred times already despite the fact that she’s only twenty-one and Harry is nineteen and they’re both still in university. 

Louis’ knowingly cheeky grin is the last thing that Zayn sees at the end of her shift and she rues the day that they became friends.

~*~

“Hazelnut latte and, ohh, I’ll have two of those biscuits, thanks,” Niall says cheerily. She’s wearing glasses today and Zayn wants to lean over the counter and push them up her nose so they’re sitting properly on her face. Her hair is down, cascading around her shoulders like a blonde waterfall. Zayn has to physically restrain herself from pushing a lock of hair behind Niall’s ear. Fuck, she has it bad.

Zayn wordlessly nods at Niall and sets about making her coffee. She’s in the same spot as she was yesterday, the table she’s at already piled high with books. Zayn wants to ask her what courses she’s taking at the university but she just can’t bring herself to. That’s a level of intimacy that Zayn isn’t sure they’re at yet. What, with being customer and barista and all. 

Louis, however, appears to have _no_ reservations whatsoever about poking her stupid nose into other people’s business.

“So!” she starts, snapping her gum. When did she even get gum? Oh, Harry had been there earlier that morning and Zayn had purposefully looked away as they had practically made out against the coffee machine. One day, they were going to break that machine and Liam was going to kill Louis in a slow, painful way and all Zayn would do is laugh. Because she and Louis are absolutely not friends anymore. Not at all. Not even a little bit. “What are you studying so intensely over there?”

Niall looks up at Louis and smiles. Does she ever stop smiling? Zayn really hopes not. She has a gorgeous smile. She wants to kiss it. “Music theory,” she replies easily. “It’s stupidly hard work but studying here really helps. It’s better than the library. They won’t even let me have food in there and I can’t study without food, you know?”

“I know,” Louis agrees with a nod. Zayn wants to smack her. She focuses on making Niall’s coffee perfectly. She doesn’t want Niall to think that she can’t make a drink at all. That would be terrible. She wants Niall to only think good thoughts about her.

“I’m doing a music course,” Niall continues without pause. “Your girlfriend, Harry, is in one of my classes, right?”

Louis nods. “Fiancée, actually,” she replies and Niall’s grin widens.

“Fiancée?” she asks and Louis nods, beaming. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” Louis says. 

Zayn sets the cardboard cup of coffee in front of Niall and then puts two biscuits onto a plate for her. 

“She actually makes all of our edible goods here,” Louis continues proudly. Given the chance, she won’t ever shut up about Harry. It’s maddeningly endearing. Stupid perfect couple, Zayn thinks bitterly.

“I’ll be sure to tell her they’re delicious,” Niall says. She accepts the plate from Zayn and flashes her a smile. Zayn’s knees totally do not go weak.

Niall returns to her table a moment later and Louis rounds on her. “Kitchen, now,” she mutters.

Zayn casts a look out at the relatively quiet store and begrudgingly follows Louis into their small kitchen. “What?” she asks, positioning herself in the doorway so that she can leave the second a customer comes into the shop.

“You aren’t going to get anywhere remotely _near_ her pants if you bloody ignore her, you twat!” Louis says and she punches Zayn in the arm. And fuck, that hurts. Louis is such a bully. She should complain to Liam about her. Except she doesn’t get along with Andrew who usually works the other shifts with Liam. He’s a bit of an arsehole and he’s hit on Zayn too many times for her to count. After Liam had witnessed that happening one time, she had put Zayn permanently with Louis. Which was both a blessing and a curse, especially with how Louis is glaring at her. “Seriously, Zayn, just fucking ask her out already, the worst she can do is say _no_.”

“Not the worst,” Zayn mumbles, casting a look over her shoulder but there aren’t any new customers to save her from Louis. 

“C’mon, babe, I’m your _best friend_ ,” Louis says. “Just go for it. She’s cute, she’s blonde and she’s your type. I bet she gives great head with a mouth like that.”

“Louis,” Zayn groans. “Please stop.”

“Sorry,” Louis replies but she doesn’t really sound sorry at all. “I’m bloody horny as _fuck_. Harry’s got her period and I just want to eat some pussy before I die of starvation.”

Zayn shakes her head and leaves Louis standing in the middle of their tiny kitchen. She loves Louis, she does, but she can’t complain. Zayn hasn’t had sex in… okay, it’s only been three weeks and she doesn’t really count getting fingered in the stacks of the library the week before because the girl she had been with had been loud and they had almost got caught. Zayn hasn’t been back to the library since.

Thankfully a customer comes in to save Zayn from more tales of sex between her and Harry. She completes his order without really thinking about it, letting her fingers work seamlessly. The guy takes his cup and someone else enters the store after he’s exited. Zayn recognises Harry’s curly head of hair before she even sees her face. She’s carrying another plastic container filled with cupcakes to replenish the stock for the afternoon rush. 

“Is Lou here?” Harry asks. Wasn’t she here just a few hours ago? Zayn wonders. Why is she back? And why does she look stupidly happy like she’s about to burst? Zayn can’t take any more of this incessant happiness that Louis and Harry seem to have going on. It’s ruining her brooding mood.

“Hey, princess.” Louis says as she exits the kitchen, a towel in her hands. Harry beams at her and they kiss before Harry whispers something in Louis’ ear.

Zayn blinks as Louis’ entire face changes and oh _no_. She knows that face. 

“Zayn!” Louis exclaims as she turns to face her, Harry’s hand in her own. “I’m taking my break!”

“Lou, you _just_ had a break fifteen minutes ago,” Zayn says.

“I’ll work back later.” That’s a lie if there ever was one. Before Zayn can protest, Louis is dragging Harry back through to the kitchen. She hears the door lock and she hangs her head. She is going to make Louis sanitise that entire kitchen herself before she leaves today. Or she won’t hesitate in telling Liam that Louis and Harry had sex in there.

There’s a loud bang and everyone’s heads snap up to look at the kitchen door. Zayn covers her face with one hand when she hears a low groan. She hopes that no one else in the shop can hear it but she knows it’s not likely.

“Hey.” Zayn turns around and almost falls over when she sees Niall leaning against the counter. “Are they allowed to do that?” 

Zayn shakes her head. “No but that’s never stopped Louis from doing what she wants,” she replies. “Just… don’t tell Liam, okay? She’ll have Louis’ head if she finds out.”

Another groan comes from behind the door. “Sounds like Louis’ getting head now.”

A snorts leaves Zayn’s mouth before she can even hold it back. “You’d think she’d never had sex before with that kind of enthusiasm,” she says. “Unlike the rest of us, Louis gets to have sex very, _very_ regularly.”

Niall lets out a frustrated noise. “Half your luck,” she mutters. “With all of this bloody coursework, I haven’t been laid in weeks.” Yep, Zayn’s mind immediately went to picturing Niall naked underneath her as she eats her out. Shit, that’s a good image. One she’s going to have to store away for later and use when she masturbates after her shift. 

“Same here,” Zayn admits. 

Niall grins at her and holds her fist out for Zayn to bump her own against. She does. And she absolutely restrains from caressing Niall’s hand in her own. “Us single ladies gotta stick together,” she says. “Anyway I–” a high pitched noise comes from the kitchen and both Niall and Zayn turn to look at the door. “Fuck, they really go for it, don’t they?”

“They do,” Zayn replies. “If I wasn’t so annoyed at them for having sex while Louis is in the middle of her shift, I’d be impressed. That girl’s got _talent_.”

“Fucking right she does,” Niall says, her tone slightly awe-filled. “Can I get six of those biscuits to go? And two cupcakes?”

“Sure,” Zayn replies. She gets a paper bag for the biscuits and uses the tongs to pick them up out of the display window. She folds the lip of the bag over and then gets a little box for the cupcakes to go into, settling them easily into the groves. “There you go.”

Niall beams at her and pays for them. “Have a good day, Zayn,” she says. “And I hope those two keep it down for you.”

Zayn smiles back. “Thanks,” she says. “And they won’t, because Louis is always loud in everything she does.”

Niall snorts. “I can tell,” she replies, throwing a wink over her shoulder as she heads back to her table to collect her belongings. She leaves the shop and Zayn sighs pathetically. Another noise comes from the kitchen. Zayn pounds her fist on the door. 

“You two better hurry the fuck up or I’m telling Liam you defiled her kitchen. _Again_.” Zayn feels smug when the noise dies down. She opens the container of cupcakes Harry brought with her and fills the display window with the new ones, keeping one aside for herself to have on her break that she is most definitely taking the second that kitchen door opens again.

~*~

The next week at the shop goes by the same for Zayn. Whenever she starts her shift, Niall is usually already there, with a cup of coffee, a biscuit or a cupcake and the mound of books in front of her. It’s not fair that Niall can make _studying_ look sexy.

“Hey,” Liam says as she comes up behind Zayn, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Are you able to work back today? Louis’ called in sick.”

Zayn looks at the clock behind her on the wall. “Yeah,” she says with a nod. It’s not like she has anything pressing to do anyway and it’s only a few more hours. Plus, she could use the money; she’s running low on art supplies.

“Thanks,” Liam says, her tone laced with relief. “Andrew doesn’t start until two but I need you to work until three, will that be okay?”

“Yeah, of course,” Zayn replies. “I’m a big girl; I can handle myself when it comes to Andrew.”

“I know you can,” Liam assures her. “I just want to avoid that at all costs if I can.”

“Li,” Zayn starts. “It’s only an hour, it’ll be fine.”

“Good,” Liam replies. “Because I have a dentist appointment and then I’m meeting Danielle after her dance class and Scott can’t start until four, so Andrew is going to be by himself for an hour.”

“Li, stop fretting,” Zayn says and she puts a hand on Liam’s shoulder, squeezing. “I can stay until four if you want. I don’t have class at all and I could use the money.”

“Really?” Liam starts. “I mean, I appreciate it but if you don’t want to, don’t feel obliged.”

“I never do,” Zayn says. “Two hours more pay for me is plenty compensation.”

Liam visibly sags in relief. “Okay,” she says with a nod. “Right, well, I have to go soon, but I can stay until Andrew gets here.”

“Alright,” Zayn replies with a nod. She sees a movement out of the corner of her eye and a moment later, Niall approaches the counter with a big smile on her gorgeous face. Zayn swoons a little. “Hey,” she says in a much more casual way than she’d greet any other customer.

“Hi,” Niall returns. “Could I get a refill? This essay is killing me.”

“That bad?” Zayn asks as she starts to make Niall’s hazelnut latte by muscle memory alone. 

Niall nods and leans her arms on the counter, crouching over so she can rest her head on them. It gives Zayn a very, very nice view of her back and the way her shirt rides up, exposing a gorgeous strip of pale skin that Zayn wants to sink her teeth into. She wonders if Niall has dimples on her lower back because _fuck_ that is hot. 

She focuses on the machine in front of her and hopes that Liam isn’t hovering around watching because _that_ would be embarrassing. Liam’s always trying to set Zayn up with friends of hers. She doesn’t get why all of these stupidly in love couples have decided that Zayn needs to be amongst their ranks of stupidly in love. Zayn’s doing just fine on her own and _oh_ , Niall is stretching in front of her. That is very distracting. Niall has a cute belly and yep, that is a belly button ring that Zayn can see poking out from underneath her top, too. What she would give to be up close and personal with that. Well, with _any_ part of Niall, really.

She has kind of zoned out with Niall talking about her essay and she feels bad but then Niall laughs as Zayn passes her the cup of coffee.

“Sorry,” Niall says. “I tend to get passionate about this subject and _everyone_ zones out like that. Even Harry does and she’s in one of my music classes.”

“Harry does that a lot, though,” Zayn points out. “She’s probably thinking of new ways for her and Louis to shag, if we’re being honest here.”

Niall grins. “Yeah, maybe,” she says. “I’d better get back to it if I want to complete this before I go home.”

Zayn nods and doesn’t sigh when Niall returns to her table again. The sleeves of her loose jumper have fallen down to cover her hands as she holds her cup of coffee and one of the shoulders has fallen down a little bit as well and it takes all of Zayn’s self-restraint to stay where she is behind the counter and not go over there and lick a long stripe from Niall’s shoulder up to her neck. It takes more self-restrain than Zayn ever thought she’d had. 

“Alright, Andrew is on his way,” Liam says after a while. She sets down her handbag and shrugs on her jacket. “Call me if you need me, okay?”

“Of course I will.” She won’t. They never do. Liam stresses too much about this shop than is probably healthy. It’ll do her good to just forget about the place for one night. Zayn does it regularly. She never thinks of the shop when she isn’t there. It would take up too much of her mind space that is better off preoccupied by other, more important things. Like art, books and the slope of Niall’s nose. 

Fifteen minutes after Andrew arrives, Zayn gets a text from Louis that simply says: _Get the pussy!!!_

With a follow up one a few seconds later that says: _One of us deserves it and it may as well be you while I’m dying._

Zayn looks up at Niall who is slightly hunched over her books and sighs. She hopes that Louis really does die from whatever the hell she has.

~*~

Louis doesn’t die.

Zayn finds this out the loud way. Of course.

“Zaynie!” Louis yells as she pounds her fist on the door to Zayn’s flat. _Why_? Is all that goes through her head. Why does Louis have to be so loud? Why is Louis at her door? Why?

She gets up to open the door. She had been in bed. Yes, it was still early for a Friday night but she just wanted to read her book and fall asleep, lost in the prose of Jane Austin and maybe masturbate a little, too. Now, she couldn’t even do that. 

“What are you doing to my poor door?” Zayn asks as she opens it. Louis is standing there with Harry. Both of them are smiling. This never leads to anything good. Last time it ended up with them snogging on Zayn’s couch while she went to bed. Wholly unfair, if you asked Zayn. 

“We’re having a girly night!” Louis exclaims as she pushes passed Zayn and immediately flops down on Zayn’s couch. Well, there go her grand plants for masturbating and falling asleep. She is going to kill Louis one of these days. “Liam and Danielle will be coming too. They’re on their way. I think. I don’t remember. Liam said something about classes or whatever. I wasn’t really paying attention. She’ll be here though.” Zayn just blinks in response. She’s more than used to Louis’ seemingly endless rambles. 

Harry immediately heads for the kitchen to pop the popcorn, Zayn presumes. She often does this. Zayn knows exactly how this night is going to go. They’ll watch a movie. Harry and Louis will progressively get closer on the couch and they’ll end up snogging each other until Zayn inevitably gets fed up and goes to bed. Just like every other time.

Except this time when Louis opens her mouth, the words she says are _not_ what Zayn is expecting at all.

“I also invited Niall.”

Zayn swears she stops breathing for a moment. “Huh?” 

Louis looks up at her and grins. “I invited Niall,” she repeats. “She said she needed a break from her boring essays and Harry and I were already planning to come here for a movie night anyway.” She shrugs like it’s no big deal. Zayn hasn’t even _showered_ yet and _Niall_ is coming over. She may be freaking out a little. 

“I hate you, Louis,” Zayn says as she hastily leaves the room to have a quick shower. She’s sure she smells like stale coffee from her shift and she hasn’t shaved at all or even cleaned up her flat. She doesn’t want Niall to think she’s a slob. She shoots Louis an extra glare but Louis doesn’t even look bothered by it as Zayn hastily leaves the room for her bathroom. She quickly showers, shaves, freshens herself up and puts on clothes. She knows it’s probably stupid, that even though Harry and Louis are in their comfortable clothes to just sloth out and watch a movie, Zayn doesn’t want Niall to see her like that. Every time that Niall has seen her, it’s been when she was in her work uniform and while Zayn looks good in a black polo shirt and slacks (she looks good in everything but that’s beside the point), she wants to give Niall a good impression of what she’s like _outside_ of work. 

Even though she totally doesn’t think that anything is going to come out of tonight.

It doesn’t hurt to be prepared. 

The doorbell rings and Zayn pauses in her bedroom. A moment later, Liam and Danielle’s voices ring clear through her flat and she lets out a sigh of relief and shimmies into a pair of black skinny jeans. 

She’s just slipping her arms into her blouse when there’s a knock on her bedroom door. Figuring it’s Liam, she calls out for her to come in. She looks down at her sleeveless black top to fasten the first button, fumbling a little with the small piece of plastic.

“You look good.”

Zayn’s head snaps up and her eyes widen as she takes in Niall standing there in her doorway. She freezes, her fingers resting on the button she was trying to fasten. Her heart begins to thud in her chest and she swallows thickly, her mouth dry already. “Uh…” she mumbles but Niall just smiles.

“Need a hand?” she asks, nodding to Zayn’s top that is still gaping open, showing off her bra and torso.

“No, I got it, thanks,” Zayn manages to get out. She fastens the buttons as quickly as she can, smoothing over the sheer top. She knows she can barely see her bra underneath it but it gives off a slightly sexy look. Well, at least that’s what Louis had said when they had gone shopping to get it. Harry had been going through a sheer top phase, which Louis had loved, of course, and Zayn happened to pick up a few that she liked as well. 

“Thanks for inviting me tonight,” Niall starts a moment later. “I think if I looked at one more music note I would scream.”

Zayn nods. “Yeah,” she says. “Anytime.”

Niall smiles brilliantly at her and Zayn feels her stomach flutter in response. She’s in too deep, she really is. They leave Zayn’s room a moment later. Harry has already made three bowls of popcorn and there are glasses of a mixture of drinks littering the surface of her coffee table. 

Louis catches Zayn’s eye and she winks before settling down on the couch, a drink in her hand already. Liam and Danielle both give Zayn a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek each before they settle into one of the arm chairs together. 

Zayn sighs inwardly as she sits down in the other arm chair, leaving the other end of the couch open for Niall to sit on next to Harry and Louis. She’s surrounded by stupidly in love couples and the girl she’s had a crush on for the last few months. It’s kind of ridiculous how out of place Zayn feels in her own home. 

She looks over at the couch to see Louis staring at her but she says nothing as Harry sits down practically in her lap after having put a movie on for them to watch.

Zayn may or may not spend a good portion of the first half an hour of the movie watching Niall’s expression, taking in the way her entire face lights up when she smiles or laughs at a scene. Zayn kind of has no idea what they’re watching but she finds she doesn’t care.

The first movie finishes quicker than Zayn expected and everyone gets up to move around and go to the loo. Zayn wanders into her kitchen with the intention of getting herself another drink when Niall wanders in as well, setting her empty popcorn bowl on the side of the sink. Zayn looks over at her and bites her lip to refrain from blurting out just how attractive she thinks Niall looks in short length dungarees and a tank top that really is cut too low underneath the arms to actually be considered functional in any way except a cloth over her skin but Zayn likes it. She thinks it suits Niall and the fact that she can see Niall’s bright yellow bra has nothing to do with it at all. Okay, so it has a little to do with it. 

“Can I get you anything?” Zayn asks a few moments later after finding her voice. Niall smiles and nods. 

“Yeah,” she says. “I’d love a coffee.”

Zayn smiles to herself. “Don’t you get enough of that at the shop?”

Niall shrugs and moves closer while Zayn puts the kettle on to boil. “I like coffee,” she says. 

Zayn licks her lips and moves passed Niall to get the milk out of her fridge. She sets it down on the counter and goes about making her and Niall’s drinks, all the while trying to find something to say that doesn’t sound utterly stupid.

“Do you want to kiss me?”

Zayn drops the teaspoon that’s in her hand. Apparently Niall has no trouble in saying what’s on her mind. She turns to Niall, a completely bewildered look across her face. “Uh.”

“Because sometimes I think you do,” Niall explains. “Like now, you’re looking at me like you want to kiss me but earlier you looked like I was the last person that you wanted to see.” 

“I want to kiss you,” Zayn replies. “A lot.”

“Good,” Niall says and she closes the distance between them, kissing Zayn soundly on the lips. 

It’s awkward, as far as first kisses go, just from the angle alone but Niall soon slips her fingers through Zayn’s hair and tilts her head just enough that it makes the kiss go from awkward to utterly perfect in mere seconds. Zayn grips the counter top behind her and kisses Niall back. She lets Niall take the lead, her lips soft and sweet against Zayn’s own.

“That was aces,” Niall says as she steps back a moment later. She grins at Zayn and Zayn just nods in response. 

“You’re good at that,” she replies, feeling stupid the second it comes out of her mouth. 

Niall just grins in response though and kisses Zayn once more, closed mouthed but just as sweet as the first one. “You’re not so bad yourself,” she says. “But next time, maybe hold my waist instead of the counter top, yeah?”

Zayn nods dumbly, her brain almost smiling at the mention of a next time. She finishes making their drinks and passes one to Niall who takes it gratefully. When they join the others in Zayn’s tiny lounge room a moment later, she notes that the couch is now completely free and that Louis and Harry are sharing the other arm chair, completely wrapped around each other and kissing like the stupidly in love couple they are.

She sits down on the couch a little closer to Niall than is platonic but now that they’ve kissed, Zayn feels decidedly less platonic towards Niall than she ever has before.

Half way through the second movie, Niall’s hand slips into Zayn’s own and laces their fingers together. 

Zayn fails miserably at keeping the grin off her face.

~*~

“Did you _finally_ get laid?” Louis asks the next day during their shift. Her apron is askew and Harry has just left and they probably scared off half of the customers that were in the store but Zayn literally can’t find it in herself to even be bothered.

“No,” Zayn replies with a shrug. She passes the cup of coffee in her hands to the customer waiting at the counter, who is giving Louis the stink eye at her crass comment before walking away. Louis doesn’t ever care about it, she always says what she wants.

“Then why the fuck are you so happy?” she asks, poking Zayn with her finger. Zayn hopes Louis washed her hands after Harry left.

“I just am,” Zayn replies with a shrug.

The door opens and Zayn looks up to see Niall walking in. She looks gorgeous today. She looks gorgeous every day, Zayn thinks, but today, she smiles at Zayn brightly and Zayn just wants to jump over the counter to kiss her. She almost does but Niall approaches the counter before she has the chance. 

“Hi,” Zayn says, unable to stop smiling. Niall grins back and Louis huffs out a ‘ _fucking finally_ ’ before leaving them alone. “What can I get you?” she asks.

Niall’s eyes sparkle as she gives Zayn a once over and licks her lips. “A hazelnut latte and your number,” she replies confidently. “I didn’t get it off you last night after we kissed.”

Zayn grabs the sharpie sitting on the counter and uncaps it. She takes Niall’s hand in her own and writes her number across the mound of Niall’s hand with a little love heart next to it. “There,” she says. “Don’t lose it.”

“I won’t,” Niall promises. Zayn’s stomach flutters pleasantly and she sets about making Niall’s latte, watching Niall out of the corner of her eye the entire time. She wriggles her toes happily in her shoes and passes the drink to Niall when she’s done. Niall leans over the counter and kisses Zayn soundly on the lips. Louis makes gagging noises in the background but Zayn ignores her in favour of kissing Niall. After all she’s put up with Harry and Louis’ escapades, Louis can handle a few kisses from her and Niall. With any luck, she and Niall will be able to give them a run for their money. The thought makes Zayn grin against Niall’s lips and they only part when the door opens, signalling a new customer into the store. Niall winks at her and goes to sit at her usual table and Zayn can’t stop smiling the entire day.

**Author's Note:**

> You can also find me here on [tumblr](http://star55.tumblr.com) or even here on [twitter](https://twitter.com/Star_55), if you like. ♥  
> My tumblr ask is always open for cisgirl Ziall prompts if you have an idea you want to share. Or other pairings like Larry or Ziam. Or to talk about girl!1D. Or just to say hi. No pressure. =)


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